A group of institutional investors known
as Climate Action 100+ welcomed the
announcement, which follows a similar move by
rival BP in February. The group, which includes
over 450 investors managing more than $40
trillion in assets, said Shell’s commitment “is of
significance for the broader energy sector.”
But some environmentalists dismissed Shell’s
announcement as a public relations stunt,
noting that the notion of “net zero” would allow
the company to keep pumping out greenhouse
gases by claiming to offset them with measures
to capture emissions.
“They hope to keep their social license by trying
to suck carbon from the air through vast tree
plantations and storing emissions underground,”
said Teresa Anderson, climate policy coordinator
at ActionAid International. “The fact that the
technology they are relying on does not yet
work at scale, and that massive land grabs would
be needed to fulfill their tree planting ambitions,
should raise huge red flags.”
“We mustn’t let corporate greenwash or the
COVID-19 pandemic distract us from the real
and urgent transformation needed to avoid
runaway climate change,” she added.
Experts agree that in order to keep average
global temperatures from rising by more than
1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) by the end
of the century compared with pre-industrial
times, the world needs to largely end man-made
greenhouse gas emissions no later than 2050.